The Origin of a Punk Rock Girl

OK, so maybe I have already told you about the origin of our little punk rock girl.  This is actually about how we came to find out about her taste in music. Plus it gives me an excuse to post what I think are some pretty funny pictures of Caelyn.

I have loved music for as long as I can remember.  It is one thing that has always been a part of my life.  Our house is filled with it.  Kerry, though, would argue that much of it isn't very good.  She likes calmer, quiet music while I like it loud and noisy.  This being the case, I find it amusing that Kerry is the one who noticed our daughter's affinity for loud music.

When she was just a baby, I don't remember how young, Kerry noticed Caelyn would calm at the sound of a guitar.  If I remember correctly, the three of us were on the couch (I don't know what we were doing or what was playing) but Kerry noticed our daughter would start to yell when guitars were not prevalent in the music we were listening to.  When the guitars kicked back in, she would quiet.

After Kerry pointed this out to me, I started digging out Cd's of various types of music. We played them for Caelyn and watched her reaction.  Each time, she was calm at loud guitar sounds especially simple "3 chord" punk rock. She would complain about quieter music.

I was thrilled.  Absolutely beside myself.  I thought it was hilarious and great for me. It meant I had an excuse to listen to whatever I wanted to and would not be stuck listening to Barney's greatest hits or some other such stuff.

Once we knew this about her, I started using the music at every opportunity.  I don't know how it started exactly but The Who live in concert became part of the bedtime routine and still is to this day.  We would use White Stripes to calm her after night terrors. She would wake up screaming and not know where she was. Even with us holding her and talking to her, she would not calm but put on Seven Nation Army and she stopped mid-cry.

She had colic in the afternoon for a while.  I tried everything I could think of to calm her and nothing worked. One afternoon, in frustration I sat down in front of the computer with her in my lap and cranked up The Distillers to drown out the constant screams.  She quieted immediately and soon went to sleep.  This became an afternoon ritual until the colic past.

The Ramones have been by far the greatest find for her.  They are on at her request even as I write this.  She has Ramones t-shirts, wears Chucks and even has a Ramones kiddie cup.  And this past Saturday, she got upset when she was told she couldn't wear her Ramones shirt to a friend's birthday party.

For almost two years she would not allow us to listen to anything but them in the car.  If she started to act up in the car, all I had to do was threaten to turn off The Ramones and she would behave.  We took a 9 + hour car trip to West Virginia with her and she never complained as long as they were on. 

Her musical taste has branched out a bit now though she still wants songs that are loud, even complaining one day that Rage Against the Machine was not loud enough. 

The result of all this, other than a smiling father and a mother with a headache, is she has a strong grasp of song structure.  She is always making up songs and they get more and more complex as time passes.  She will even include a chorus that she goes back to throughout the song.  In the last day or two she has started putting together her own beats and rhythms.

We have encouraged this experimentation with her own guitar, (pictured above), various smaller instruments and my mom got her a drum set.  I am not sure if the drum set was more for Caelyn or for my mom to see if Caelyn could drive us nuts but it is quite popular with both kids now.

Of course, I don't know how long this will last.  She may have developed a love of music that will last her for life or she may move on to something else at any time but I plan to ride this wave as long as possible.